The recently completed Final Four was, by most accounts, a tremendous success for New Orleans and the Mercedes-Benz Superdome, with many fans and media impressed with the iconic structure's $336 million renovation. There was, however, one tiny problem with potentially bigger implications with the Super Bowl -- and thousands of media members -- coming to town next year.

View full sizeThe Times-PicayuneA ceremony was held Aug. 10 at the Louisiana Superdome to mark the renovation of the venerable sports complex.
Part of the renovation included new seats in the lower ring of the stadium.
John McCusker/The Times-Picayune

Multiple members of the media took to social media to report encounters with rats in and around the ground-floor media workroom.

"When people have a good or bad experience, generally, their first reaction is to turn to social media and share that feeling," said Jim Ethridge, director of digital services for KEF Media.

This past February in Indianapolis, the host committee employed the Super Bowl's first social media command center to monitor the digital fan conversations across the various social media platforms. The response was overwhelmingly positive.

According to Ethridge, if the Final Four encounters with rodents were to occur during the Super Bowl, it would shed a negative light on, not only the Superdome, but also the city. A command center wouldn't be able to control the issue, he said.

A problem "can affect a city through social media in that it is so immediate and exponential," Ethridge said. "Once something gets out into social media, it's hard to get on top of it and correct it with as quickly as it moves."

Lawrence Journal-World Sports Editor Tom Keegan observed rats scurry around the media workroom and past his feet on multiple occasions. Keegan said he informed security about one particular rat that was "the size of a small cat."

"I'm freaked out by rats," Keegan said about his first sighting March 28, three days before the semifinal games. "I mentioned what I saw to security and they said, 'That's Fred. Nobody can catch Fred.'"

Taking the issue seriously

Following the championship game April 2, a Louisville sports anchor, Kendrick Haskins, had a similar encounter with a rat, in a restroom next to the media workroom.

"I saw it and stopped in my tracks," Haskins said. "I couldn't believe it because I had been hearing about it, and was then like, 'Here it is.' The first thing I did was reach for my phone to take a picture of it."

Haskins had left his phone on the table in media workroom, however, and didn't get a picture. But someone posted a photograph on Twitter of a rat, out in the open, running alongside a bunch of wires.

"It's hard to assess (if there is a problem) because a lot of times when you rely on an eyewitness, one rat really startles people and that may not signify a significant problem," said Randy Vaeth, entomologist for East Baton Rouge Mosquito Abatement and Rodent Control. "They all appear to be the size of cats. We hear that quite a bit. The only way you would really be able to discern that, would be to have some professional go in and do some trapping to try to estimate the size and age structure of the population."

The Superdome's director of engineering and operations, Randy Philipson, said he is aware of the sightings and is taking pest control seriously.

"We have over 2 million square feet just with the Dome," Philipson said. "We also have the (New Orleans) Arena, Champions Square and the building associated with Champions Square, which is the old Macy's and food court. It's our responsibility to do our best to control and eradicate all pests."

The media workroom was a converted area that is normally working space for the Superdome's field crew, Philipson said.

"For the Final Four we took everything out of the space," he said. "We had shelves in there, equipment stored in there, goalposts, turf paint -- everything that you could possibly imagine that our field crew uses to set up events -- and converted it into a public space for the media ... where we had a buffet going almost the entire time."

Vaeth said that rats are opportunistic, especially in areas where food sources are limited, and any rodents would have certainly been drawn out by the buffet.

Philipson said that as soon as he was notified, he informed Orkin, the facility's pest-control provider. The response was quick and precise, he said.

Philipson insists the issue is commonplace with any facility the size of the Superdome and the surrounding complex, especially in a city such as New Orleans -- surrounded by water -- where pest control can be challenging.

According to Philipson, the Superdome spends more than $50,000 per year on pest control and rodent prevention. In comparison, the Georgia Dome, site of next year's Final Four, spends only $14,400 per year, according to an official from the Atlanta stadium.

The Superdome's pest-control provider is on the complex grounds with a two-man team, three days per week, four hours a day, working systematically through the complex and tracking progress on a computer program, Philipson said.

"They check bait stations. They check traps. They check for any hint of anything and they will advise us," he said. "... There's a reason it's called pest control and not pest elimination."

Centerplate, the Superdome's food service provider, has a warehouse, which includes refrigeration, under the stands. Philipson says that after each event, all food is removed from the concession areas and stored in Centerplate's warehouse. In addition, all beverage lines are flushed and cleared, he said.

'Fred and his boys'

Philipson said that in his 12 years at the Superdome, he's never seen a complaint pertaining to a rodent in public areas.

Since 2009, when a new system of archiving customer service complaints was put in place, a Superdome official said there have been no complaints of rodent sightings in public areas.

Haskins said that except for seeing the rat, his overall experience in New Orleans was wonderful and he preferred working in the Superdome to Reliant Stadium in Houston, the site of the 2011 Final Four.

"The people and workers were extremely nice and everything was great," he said, "except for Fred and his boys."